Our minds will look ahead when fear is left behind. My ex-husband, Steve, and I share joint-custody of our 3 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback, Lucy. Steve, technically, has full custody but I agree to watch her when he travels, which he happens to be doing this week. As you can see, Lucy is less…

“Each common interest between people boosts the chances of a lasting relationship and also brings about a 2% increase in life satisfaction.” Gretchen Rubin Similarities, Commonalities, Likeness, Sameness, Common Ground That’s what you need to bridge the gap between any two individuals. If you look closely, you can see the bridge being built. Last…

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” Plutarch I have the pleasure of developing and facilitating a mentoring workshop for a client this week. The fun thing about this particular event is I’m not just telling them about how a mentorship program can work, what the benefits…

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” John F. Kennedy My 7 year old son is fascinated my marine life. He constantly talks about being a marine “researcher” so he can learn all about the many animals in the sea and, of course, discover new ones so he can be famous. Yesterday was…

You can only watch injustice go on for so long until you’re compelled to say something. To speak out against it. Macklemore I teach a course on various EEO “issues,” on average, about three times every month. I love teaching these classes because while my materials/content are consistent, the stories and questions are always…

I got a call the other day…a desperate one at that…to help resolve a touchy employee relations problem. The problem at hand involved nearly twenty professionals. I use the word “professionals” loosely as they demonstrated anything but professionalism. Name calling, back stabbing, hostility, aggressiveness…you name it, they offered it. How does a team get this…

You can’t build a great house on a weak foundation. My mother, Carol Strider I had the pleasure of teaching a class the other day on leadership and employee engagement. My primary objective of this particular course was to help participants identify some pragmatic ideas to not only engage an otherwise “positive” workforce but to…

For the past several months, I have been presenting what my client is calling “leadership roundtable” courses. Each month, they identify a relevant topic and ask me to develop content accordingly. I then present it, facilitate active discussion around the topic, and then wrap it all up in a neat little bow. Today’s topic was…

I gave a presentation yesterday on employee engagement. In my spiel, I talk a little about what the data says, a little about how a company can go about defining the ambiguous term, and a lot about what supervisors can do to help get more of the elusive “engagement” from their employees. I typically…

“The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.” Carson McCullers I recently read “Light on Snow” by Anita Shreve. This book was about a family dealing with death, grief, and the necessity of moving on. In this story, the father was grieving the loss of his wife and, while…